


Life Was a Willow

by OdotumSuojelius



Series: flower shop!universe [2]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pining, Slow Burn, charles just being a good bestie and horsey being cutest cat, max/lando implied bc they have their story, pierre/charles implied with possibility for more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29982705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OdotumSuojelius/pseuds/OdotumSuojelius
Summary: “Nah I just find it cute, that you went and fell in love on the first day” Charles chuckled softly. It made Alex want to punch him. “Wasn’t your plan like no dating or anything through uni? Fully focus on school?”“Yeah and it still is”, Alex shrugged a little, focusing on petting Horsey. He hated that he felt his cheeks blush.  “And I’m not in love with George… He has a boyfriend anyway.”- Or the one where Alex and Charles move to a new city for uni. Alex falls for George hard after first meeting. Meanwhile George's relationship seems to be cracking -
Relationships: Alexander Albon/George Russell, Lando Norris/Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly/Charles Leclerc
Series: flower shop!universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2171388
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is Alex's pov of what is happening during ['Now I'm your daisy'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29469012/chapters/72387462) You don't need to know anything about that fic to read this but if want to read it after this chapter know that it will spoil some of the second part (for example they share one scene). Song title for this from Taylor Swift - Willow 
> 
> Disclaimer: This is pure work of fiction. I do not intend that their real life counterparts are together. Just fiction
> 
> A big thank you for my beta [JustAnotherF1Fangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherF1Fangirl/pseuds/JustAnotherF1Fangirl) for proof-reading this fic!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The first day of school was always exciting when you were a little. You would get to see your friends and your teachers. Maybe you had a new school bag and pens to show off to everyone. Everyone was buzzing with excitement about the new school year. However, the older you get, the less excitement there was. In the end, when the last day of summer holiday came around, setting up the alarm for the first day of school felt like a stab in the chest. 

However, Alex was somehow stuck in the first day of excitement of a new school year as a kid and also the painful stab you got as a teenager. He stood in front of the big university building, taking deep breaths. Here we go, he thought but didn’t dare to take a step forward yet. 

Oxford law school had been his dream for years and when the acceptance email had come a few months ago he had barely believed what he had read. When he and his roommate, Charles, had moved to the new city about a week ago, it started to feel more real. Now, standing in the yard, it felt really fucking real and scary. 

“Shit sorry!” Alex felt someone bump against him a bit, their shoulders touching. He turned around, finding a young handsome guy looking at him, blushing. “Sorry I… I was just staring at the building and didn't see you and… What a way to start a new school and now I’m just rambling... Sorry!” 

The guy’s cheeks got even redder as he kept talking. Meanwhile Alex found himself smiling, just looking at the guy. It felt good to know he wasn’t the only one freaking out about the first day of school. 

“It’s okay.” Alex smiled softly at the guy. The guy smiled back at him. The smile almost took Alex’s breath away. “I probably shouldn’t be standing in the middle of the road anyway, so it’s my fault really… It’s your first day?”

It wouldn’t hurt to make some small talk. Maybe would calm his nerves a bit. At least the guy looked kind.

“Yeah first day at law”, the guy smiled softly before offering his hand for Alex to shake. Alex grabbed it. “I’m George by the way.”

“Wait, you gonna study law?” Alex asked getting a bit excited. The boy - apparently named George - nodded with a smile. A classmate! “Me too! It’s my first day as well… Oh and I’m Alex.”

“Nice to meet you Alex”, George smiled, flashing his smile to Alex. Alex swore he felt his heart skip a beat. “So… You nervous too?”

“An absolute mess! I have just been staring at the building, not even brave enough to walk closer. This all feels pretty unreal.”

“Same. I just kept staring at the building and walked in on you, so I’m not doing much better… But if we go inside together it can’t be that scary, right?” 

“I mean, that could work.”

George smiled at Alex and started to walk towards the school building. Alex felt like his feet were finally able to move again as they walked side by side to the building. More people started crowding around them. Alex moved closer to George. He didn’t want to lose him now. George didn’t seem to mind grabbing Alex’s hand as they walked through a big group of people.

George only let go of Alex’s hand when they finally reached the lecture hall. Even there though, they stayed side by side sitting next to each other and continued with the small talk while they waited for rest to find the room. 

It turned out they had a lot in common. George too had just moved to the city. He had been working towards studying law at Oxford since he was a kid just like Alex had. George was mostly interested in criminal law, meanwhile Alex wanted to focus on civil rights. Most importantly though, George seemed to take school seriously, both of them going to full focus mode when the professor finally entered the room.

This was what Alex had been craving for so many years. To actually have a friend who shared his passion for school and took it seriously. He had been called a nerd many times during high school, and while he loved his best friend - and now roommate - to death, Charles was carefree and had no interest in normal school work. Maybe he could find a new friend in George, Alex thought, hopefully gazing to George a little through the introduction. 

Just like the first days when you’re a kid, this first day was overwhelming. There was an introductory lecture from professors, a tour around the campus, an introduction from tutor students and some socializing games for the freshmen to get some idea of who their classmates were. The last one was possibly the worst part. 

There were too many new people and he knew he needed to get friends to actually survive the school year, but at the same time he was nervous. What about if they didn’t like him? He knew he could get along with anyone, but making the first effort was always the hardest part. Sigh.

To his luck and horror, George seemed to be a natural when it came to new people. George chatted a lot and people seemed to like him instantly. For a moment Alex was sure that this was it. This is how he would lose the small connection he had got with George and he would end up alone for all the years. 

“Oh, and this is my friend Alex.”

Alex’s head shot up when he heard George mention his name. He had just kind of been standing behind George outside the circle of five people, not knowing where he belonged. George grabbed his arm, pulling him to the circle and making room for him. Alex gave him a smile while everyone introduced themselves to Alex and started to ask questions about him. 

Only thing Alex thought was “George called me his friend”. He smiled a bit and blushed. 

When the last scheduled thing was over, Alex was exhausted. Too much new information. Too many new people. Too much just everything. It seemed as if he wasn’t the only one when George and he walked out together. 

“You feel overwhelmed too, right?” Alex asked George, running his hand through his hair. “I mean, it was fun, but just too much of everything honestly.”

“Yeah, a bit of a rough first day”, George smiled at Alex softly. Alex smiled back. “I mean, we’re gonna go to law school, so we probably got a lot more rough days coming. But honestly, that was too much. I won’t probably even remember half of the people’s names in a few hours.”

“Oh, I don’t even remember them at the moment!” Alex joked. George laughed. “Thanks for… Thanks for pulling me to hang with the people… I’m really awkward with new people, so thanks.”

“You aren’t awkward. Not awkward at all with me anyways… And I would’ve rather talked with you more than all the new people. Actually, you want to share phone numbers or something?”

“Of course!”

Alex gave George his phone, letting the other boy type his number there. They had stopped at the campus cages, but Alex wasn’t ready to let George go yet. He wanted to keep talking to him and get to know him. He was absolutely exhausted, but if he had a chance to hang out with George, he would take it any second. 

“I… You gonna go to the freshmen party tonight?” Alex asked carefully as George gave him his phone back. 

“No, my boyfriend has planned this whole night for the two of us, so…” George smiled happily and Alex felt his heart suddenly sink to his stomach. “But are you gonna go?”

George had a boyfriend. He had a boyfriend and Alex felt a bit ill. He didn’t even understand why. He just wanted to be friends with George. What did George having a boyfriend have anything to do with it? He wasn’t sure, but somehow he felt disappointed. 

“Probably not”, Alex forced a smile. “I’m actually quite tired so… I need more of a nap than a party, honestly.”

“Good plan”, George chuckled, but before he could continue his phone made a noise. George grabbed it, a big loving smile coming to his face right away. “Sorry, it’s Lando. He asked when am I gonna be home… I have to go. It was great to meet you! We’ll text, okay? Maybe we can go to a lecture together on Wednesday again, yes?”

“Yeah, I’d love that”, Alex kept his smile up, nodding at George. “Have a fun night.”

“You too!” 

Alex looked at George. He wasn’t looking at him, head in the opposite direction as Alex. 

So that was his first day. A lot of information and a new friend… That would apparently only stay as a friend… Most importantly a new friend, he corrected himself as he headed towards his apartment. 

#

At least Oxford was giving them an easy start to the school year, giving them one free day before the actual courses would start. Maybe it was mostly given because they knew Freshmen would be nursing their hangovers from the first party of the school year. 

Not Alex, though. He had woken up to his white and brown cat, Horsey, licking his face. Alex had gone on a run before calmly spending some time reading. It was a perfectly calm morning, he needed to feel fresh after the first day. The same couldn’t be said for his roommate. 

“There”, Alex gave Charles some painkillers for the headache and a big glass of cold water. His roommate had only just come back home and had wrapped himself in a blanket. “You went all out, huh?”

Alex had been a bit worried about becoming roommates with Charles. If you looked at them from the outside, you would say they had nothing in common. Alex was calm and nerdy. Charles was chaotic and artsy. On paper, they shouldn’t work. In reality, though, they had been best friends for years; his friend brought a nice splash of colour to Alex’s life. When Alex had got into Oxford, and Charles into the performing arts school of the city, it had only seemed logical to move in together. 

“Only way to party”, Charles smirked at Alex, taking the pills quickly before snuggling against a pillow. “So how was your first day? You obviously didn’t go to any parties… You did get some friends at least right?”

“No party, no”, Alex shook his head, sitting down on the sofa. Horsey jumped onto Alex’s lap right away to get snuggles. “But I have a new friend. His name’s George. He just moved here too. He is very handsome and kind and he is almost as tall as me, so I’m not a total giant alone… And…”

Alex continued rambling about every detail he had gotten out of George. With little Instagram stalking, he had been able to find his profile. There had been a lot of pictures from travels around Europe, artsy studying moments, shirtless selfies and a lot of pictures with a much shorter guy than him. The guy turned out to be Lando, also known as ‘The Boyfriend’. They looked adorable together. It made Alex’s stomach churn a bit. 

“What?” Alex asked when Charles was only smirking and not saying anything. “Why are you quiet? You’re never quiet!” 

“Nah I just find it cute, that you went and fell in love on the first day” Charles chuckled softly. It made Alex want to punch him. “Wasn’t your plan like no dating or anything through uni? Fully focus on school?”

“Yeah and it still is”, Alex shrugged a little, focusing on petting Horsey. He hated that he felt his cheeks blush. “And I’m not in love with George… He has a boyfriend anyway.”

And it didn’t matter that George had a boyfriend, Alex told himself once again. They were just friends, and he needed a friend. A friend to study with and a friend who was similar to him. George was perfect for that. And it wasn’t like he even knew George that well. They had only met. Anything could happen. This wasn’t a real crush. It was just a small new friend crush that would fade quickly. 

“Whatever”, Alex huffed while Charles was still grinning at him. “Did you find yourself a sugar daddy or a rich hubby yet? Where did you even spend the night?”

Charles only had one goal in life at the moment, and that was to find someone rich to support his life and passion project in both fashion and music. This was one of the many things that Charles did that 1) Alex thought to be ridiculous and 2) made for at least fun moments in their lives. 

“Sadly, no”, Charles sighed dramatically which only made Alex smile a little. “I spent the night with this hot French guy… Pretty sure his name was Pierre. He was really hot but not rich.”

“How do you know he wasn’t rich?” Alex asked just to humour himself. If Charles was allowed to tease him, then he would tease him back. “You barely even know his name. You probably didn’t even know your own name last night.”

“Haha, very funny, Alexander”, Charles rolled his eyes at his friend. “But he wasn’t rich because no rich person would dress like him… Like so normal and off the rag. But he was hot and we had a good night so I’m not complaining. And is not like we are ever gonna see again. He wasn’t even a student.”

Alex was about to continue teasing his roommate but his phone buzzed on the table. He grabbed it, checking the new message. 

George R  
  
  
Hey! Wanna grab coffee before first class tomorrow? There’s a cafe near the campus 😊  


Alex felt himself blush a bit right away. A smile spread on his face as he answered quickly that he would absolutely love to get coffee together. It seemed like he really had a new friend. Alex looked down at the phone with a soft smile. 

“What was that?” Charles asked. Alex gazed at his roommate who was staring at Alex’s phone. “Who sent you a message?”

“George”, Alex said quietly. Charles giggled at him. Alex only pouted, putting his phone away and wrapping his arms around Horsey. He hid his face in the cat’s soft fur, ignoring Charles’ smile. 

Everything was fine. He was simply excited about having a new friend. That’s it. 

#

“You don’t even know George. Anything can happen”, Alex had told himself many times when he thought about George and the tiniest possibility of there being a crush. And he had been right about that. The only problem was that it had gone exactly the other way than he had hoped. 

George was absolutely wonderful. 

He was kind and polite; he looked out for everyone around him, especially Alex; he dragged Alex along with him everywhere he went and remembered his coffee order from the first order on; he was just as serious about school as Alex was and would never tell him not to talk about subjects he liked. And when they studied together, there was full focus and silence. It was exactly what Alex needed when he studied. They fitted together perfectly. 

They had fallen into a routine with each other. They would meet outside the campus every morning. Every other morning Alex would have coffees for them and the rest of the days George would. They spent lunches in a bigger group but still always sat side by side. After lectures, they would stay in a library or go to one’s place to do some studying together. It all seemed too perfect. 

But of course it wasn’t perfect. There was just one little issue breaking the bubble. 

Lando. 

Alex had been to George’s place enough times to see his boyfriend around. Lando seemed almost as wonderful as George himself. Lando was funny and a bit chaotic; he and George were clearly the perfect pair for each other balancing each other out. 

Alex hated that. 

And that was why he was glad it was only he and George spending Friday night at George’s place. They had taken over the whole living room and did flashcards from all the lessons. Except the cards were long forgotten and he and George were just sitting on the sofa sipping on beers with the TV faintly playing in the background while they chatted. 

“Those are some pretty flowers”, Alex gazed at the big bouquet of light blue flowers with a few red ones in the mix. He turned to look at George just in time to see his friend frown a little. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, of course not”, George sighed, looking at the flowers as well. A small smile appeared on his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s just that Lando got them for me - for our anniversary… That I had completely forgotten about, so… Doesn’t feel good.”

Oh. 

George looked so guilty, his cheeks reddened and he gazed down at his lap. Alex knew he should probably feel sorry for Lando that George had forgotten, but he felt sorry for his friend instead and he wanted to comfort him. 

“Look it’s fine”, Alex told him, nudging him a bit with his elbow. George gazed at him and Alex smiled. “You didn’t do it on purpose and we have been crazy busy and overwhelmed with school stuff. It’s fine.”

“Yeah, I blamed it on the school as well when I tried to make it all okay”, George sighed deeply, but then a small smile came to his face again. “Lando understood that and I got him a gift later, so it’s fine… At least he understands how much school work we have and that is… Well, it’s hard.”

“Yeah, Lando is a great boyfriend”, Alex said, keeping his smile up as well as he could. That was definitely something Alex had noticed. Change the subject quickly, he told himself. “Where is Lando anyway?”

“Hanging with his new friend Max”, George hummed a little, taking the remote to change the channel. “I’m glad he has a new friend. They seem very similar, always playing together during evenings, talking on discord.”

Before Alex had a chance to ask more about who this Max person was, his phone started to vibrate violently on the table. Even George jumped a bit in surprise, but Alex just sighed as he took the phone. He knew exactly who it was. 

Charlito  
  
  
ALEX  
  
open your snap  
  
dont ignore me  
  
SNAP  
  
if you ignore me i’ll kill u  
  
no  
  
i’ll steal horsey  
  
he is my cat now  


“Who the hell messages you like that?” George asked, peeking over to Alex’s phone a bit. 

“Charles”, Alex chuckled, moving over to his Snapchat where there were almost ten videos waiting for him. “He doesn’t really have patience.” 

Alex already knew what the videos would be as he opened them, cranking the volume up. Whenever Charles got a burst of inspiration and Alex wasn’t home, his whole phone blew up with videos of him on the piano testing something new. That was exactly what had happened now as well. Alex smiled as he looked at the phone before turning it to show George what was happening. 

“That’s Charles playing?” George hummed, looking at the video. Alex nodded. Charles had positioned the camera on the nightstand showing the side profile of him and the piano as he played. “Wow, he’s talented.”

“Yeah, he doesn’t go to school just for fun”, Alex smiled at George before quickly snapping a pic of his face as an answer with compliments to his roommate. “He’s so talented but… Honestly, he’s talented in all the arts. Like, our place is filled with different fabrics at the moment because he’s doing some sort of project… I don’t know, it’s hard to keep up with his projects.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but how did you two ever end up being friends?” George asked curiously, making Alex laugh a bit, turning to look at him. George gave him a smile. “I mean he seems like chaos, and you definitely aren’t.” 

“Maybe you don’t know me well enough yet… Nah, just kidding. Charles’ second name is chaos, but I don’t know, we just work well together. Yeah, he annoys me, and I probably annoy him too, but we also help and care for each other, so it works.”

“But how did you guys end up being friends? How did quiet nerdy Alex end up hanging with dramatic chaos Charles? 

“Simply being the only two gay boys in our school… I mean, I was in the closet, but Charles was out. I guess we found comfort in each other when trying to figure out our sexuality.”

“Wait, you’re gay?” 

Alex turned to look at George. George meanwhile just stared at him, eyes wide. Alex nodded a little which made George’s face go more neutral. He wasn’t able to read his reaction in any way. Alex felt his cheeks heat up. This wasn’t supposed to matter right, he thought. Why would this change anything?

“Sorry about my reaction”, George finally seemed to come back from his frozen state. He gave him a smile, making small butterflies in Alex’s stomach dance. Alex smiled too, feeling relieved. “That… I just had no idea. Not that it was any of my business… Anyway… So have you and Charles ever, like, been together?”

“He was my first kiss”, Alex shrugged a little, looking at George. He saw that George was clearly thinking about something but he still couldn’t read him in any way. “But dear God, no. I never actually had any feelings for him.”

“But you guys kissed?” George asked. Alex felt himself blush even more. 

“Yeah... Charles…”, Alex tried to think about how to explain, but the only thing he could do was laugh dumbly. “It’s a long story really…”

“I have time.”

And that is how Alex ended up telling George how Charles had come up with the idea that if you kissed badly you will end up scaring the love of your life away, and with enough begging and puppy eyes he had convinced Alex to practise kissing with him. It wasn’t like Alex had actually complained that much. It had been good practise even though Charles was still his only kissing partner. He didn’t mention that to George. 

By the end, Alex really started regretting telling George. But then George told about his horrible first kiss with some girl. Well, it seemed that it had been more spit than kiss and they both ended up giggling at each other’s stories. Alex didn’t feel embarrassed anymore. He felt comfortable like he always did with George. 

From first kisses, they moved on to other high school and middle school memories. Alex told George about some crazy teachers he’d had. George told him about the time when his friend group had hacked into the school system. They shared stories about their first crushes and mean bullies. 

At some point, they both ended up curled on the sofa just facing each other while talking. The TV and flashcard were long forgotten and they were only fully focused on each other. Alex kept looking at George, thinking about how comfortable he was and how much he wanted to move just a bit closer. But he wouldn’t do that. He had to stay strong. 

Their bubble burst when the door opened and Lando’s voice spread throughout the apartment. It made both Alex and George jump apart quickly and turn their heads away. 

“I’m so sorry I’m late, Max wouldn’t- Oh, Alex”, Lando walked into the living room, his smile dropping when his gaze landed on Alex. It was only a second before Lando was smiling again, but Alex felt a little stab in his chest. “Hi, Alex! Have you guys been studying this whole time?”

“No, we were talking most of it”, George smiled, saving Alex from coming up with an answer. George stood up from the sofa walking over to Lando pulling him close. “Wait what time is it?”

“It’s ten”, Lando answered leaning against George’s side. Alex looked away before realising what Lando said. He grabbed his phone to really see what time it was. 

“Shit I should’ve left ages ago”, Alex said, starting to gather his own books and cram them into his bag. How the hell was it that late already? That meant he and George had been talking for hours and he didn’t even notice. 

“Alex, it’s fine”, Alex heard Lando laugh a little but he just focused fully on grabbing all of his stuff to his bag. 

“Yeah, it’s fine Alex, I wanted you here”, George gave Alex his last book as he stood up with his bag slung over his shoulder. George smiled at him and Alex smiled back. “We see each other on Monday, yeah? Coffee will be my treat!” 

“Yeah”, Alex smiled at George, grabbing the book. He looked at him for a moment before heading to the door. He put on his jacket and shoes as he felt George look at him. He turned to him with a smile. “Thanks for tonight. Bye!”

“Bye Alex!” Alex heard Lando’s voice coming from somewhere in the apartment. George, meanwhile, gave him both a little wave and a smile as he watched him go. 

Alex took a deep breath when he finally got out on the street. He felt happy warm feelings around his chest when he thought about just talking with George. But at the same time, all those feelings felt wrong. George had Lando and George was happy with Lando. 

Fuck this. 

#

“You can come to the party with me, you know”, Charles told Alex as he changed his shirt for what felt like the tenth time. No, scratch that, it definitely  _ was  _ the tenth time. Alex really didn’t know why he had even been asked to help him pick out a shirt. “So you don’t have to have a boring night by yourself.”

“Nah, I would just slow you down on your mission of finding a sugar daddy”, Alex shrugged, focusing on petting Horsey instead. “And I don’t have a boring night. I’m gonna catch up on reading the novel I just got and cuddle with Horsey. I’ll be fine.”

“Hmm, right”, Charles hummed as he walked over to his mirror. He moved around a bit to look at how he looked. “What’s George doing tonight?”

“Hanging with Lando. We’ll see each other on Sunday to revise some school stuff. Also, please don’t change that shirt anymore, you look amazing Charles.”

“Maybe you should’ve got some friends other than just George.”

Alex only hummed, looking at Horsey purring in his lap. He knew Charles was right. He really should have tried to get at least one more real friend and not latch onto George like he had. And sure there were other people he talked to during school, but none of them he actually wanted to hang out with outside of school. It seemed like the people were around them for George anyway. Alex couldn’t blame them. 

His crush was getting worse. He couldn’t even lie and say that he didn’t have a crush. He needed to be able to fight it off. Alex wasn’t ready to lose George over a stupid crush. 

“Sorry Alex, I didn’t mean it in a bad way”, Charles’ hands cup his face, lifting it up so he was looking at Charles. Alex sighed. “You’re so wonderful. Anyone would be happy to have such a good friend as you… I could you know stay home with you. I really don’t have to go.”

“Charles, I’m fine, I promise!” Alex told Charles, forcing a smile onto his face. He hated how worried his best friend looked. “Go out! Have fun. Don’t get an STD please.”

Charles looked at him for a moment before chuckling a little. He leaned to place a kiss to Alex’s forehead before heading out to a party. Meanwhile, Alex moved to his own bed with a book in hand and Horsey in his arms. He was fine spending a night like this. Just a peaceful night with his cat. Perfect. 

Alex was close to dozing off when his phone vibrated on the nightstand. He looked around confused before grabbing it. It was clearly late, but not late enough for Charles to be ready with the party. He was surprised to see a message from George.

George R  
  
  
Are you still awake?  
  
Wanna facetime?  


Alex sat quickly sat up. Horsey woke up from the pillow next to Alex, letting out noise, but Alex was too focused on the message to care. 

Wasn’t George supposed to have a night with Lando? Something must have happened. Alex checked quickly what he looked like, running a hand through his hair, before pressing the call.

George answered the call within seconds. The big smile Alex was giving him dropped right after when he saw him. George was laying in bed, a blanket pulled up to his chin. He looked tired, like he had been crying. The usual smile was gone. It had been replaced with a fake one.

”George”, Alex let out a breath, looking at his friend worriedly. George tried smiling more but it only pained Alex. ”What happened? Where’s Lando?”

”Everything’s fine”, George told him, rubbing his face a little. Alex gave him a look that said ‘I don’t believe you’. George sighed before continuing. ”We had a little fight. Lando is a friend’s place - probably Max - and he’ll probably stay there… I didn’t interrupt you doing anything?”

”No, no of course not. But what happened?” Alex asked worriedly. It didn’t seem like such a little fight since George looked so broken. George shook his head but Alex continued. ”George, you’ve clearly cried. What did you two fight about? Do you want me to come over?”

”Alex, please, I don’t wanna talk about it. We both said things we shouldn’t have, but it will be okay. And no, don’t come over. Just… I just need to distract myself. Can we please talk about something? Please.”

Alex looked at George. He looked so miserable. He really just wanted to be there next to George and hug him. Okay, he kind of always wanted to do that, but now he really needed that. But if George wanted to talk and forget about the fight, Alex could do that. 

”Have I ever told you about how I got Horsey?” Alex asked, laying down on the bed again. The cat immediately moved closer to Alex, laying down on the same pillow as him. George shook his head, but smiled a bit more real as his eyes followed the cat. ”Do you want to hear it?”

“Yes please”, George nodded tiredly. He pulled the blanket higher, making him look more adorable in Alex’s eyes than he already was. 

“Okay, so, I was seventeen”, Alex smiled softly, moving so that both he and Horsey were in the picture. He reached one of his hands to stroke his fur. “The finals of the year were coming close and I was a total mess. I just kept reading and reading and my whole head was completely filled with school stuff. My mom ended up taking all of my school books away one night and, like, pushed me out of the house to apparently get some fresh air or whatever.

“So I went on a walk around the neighbourhood. It was such shitty weather too, like, it was cold and windy, but I was stubborn and just kept walking around. I got to the playground I always used to play as a kid and sat on the swings because why not. Then I heard this incredibly soft meow from near the bushes. I walked close to it, right? And found this little cute kitten meowing at me.

“Honestly, it was full love at first sight kinda thing. I lifted him up right away and hurried home to show my mom what I found and ask if I could keep him. She was kinda wary about this, but she thought he would at least be a bit of a distraction from the studying, so she said I could get him to the vet and then keep him till it was safe to give him a new home. Jokes on her because we haven’t left each other’s side since we first met; she had to let me have him.”

While the story had gone on, Horsey had moved to lay even closer to Alex, stretching himself out, pawing his hair while trying to sleep. Alex let him do that. He always let the cat do what he wanted. 

“I mean Horsey is clearly the cutest cat ever, I get it”, George chuckled a little. He moved to lay on his side and Alex is pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear what George said quietly. “You’re both cutest ever.”

Alex looked at George, trying to ignore what he heard. There was no way George thought he was cute. Yeah, Horsey was cute, but  _ he  _ wasn’t. Alex looked at George snuggle, smiling at his phone. 

“Our family had bunnies when I was a kid”, George told him softly. At least George looked more carefree and the faint smile on his face seemed to be real now. “Or, well, they were my sister’s really… They smelled.”

“Ooh I would love a really fluffy bunny”, Alex said excitedly. George chuckled a little and it warmed his heart. “Well, actually I would like to have more cats… Or like a tiger would be cool.”

“So you went from having a cute little Horsey”, George smiled softly at Alex. Alex was now smiling brightly too. “To want to have a wild animal. I mean sure.”

“Yeah yeah not maybe in this apartment but, like, don’t you think having like a big wild cat home would be awesome? Not some bullshit zoo where they wouldn’t be happy, but, like, just tigers and lions hanging!”

“I feel like your major is very wrong for this… What other animals would you want other than big wild cats? Personally, I think raccoons would be cool.”

“Oh, you want to hear my list? Raccoons are on it, no worries.”

And that is how Alex and George spent the next hour going through what all animals they would want to have if it was possible. They both agreed on big wild cats and raccoons. Meanwhile, George didn’t understand why Alex wanted meerkats (“They are so cute”, Alex had insisted). On the other hand, Alex didn’t understand what was so cool about fishes (“Look low-maintenance, but still pretty”, had been George’s reasoning). 

“Alex, I can see you start to fall asleep”, George said after a moment of them just looking at each other through the phone. Alex groaned a little. “Go to sleep. It’s way too late to start coming up with new animals for our zoo.”

“Yeah yeah”, Alex sighed, moving to lay on his side. He gave George a smile though. “Did this help you? Talking about as mindless as what we just talked.”

“It was exactly what I needed”, George smiled softly to Alex. “But now though! Good night Alex. Sweet dreams.”

“Night Georgie.”

Alex ended up falling asleep with a big smile on his face that night. 

#

After weeks of Charles insisting that Alex needed to have a night out and come to the bar with him and his friends, Alex finally gave in. It had been an extremely long school week, with him and George working on a project together and finally submitting it on Friday. It seemed like a good moment to go out and party. So, there they were Alex and George sitting on the sofa sipping on their beers while Charles was still trying to decide what to wear for tonight. 

It had really been an accident that George wanted to come with them. Alex hadn’t planned on inviting him, but when he had mentioned that Charles was dragging him to a bar, George had asked to join. Alex was bad at saying no to George, and honestly, a night out with Charles and his friends sounded overwhelming. So he was happy to have George there as support. 

It was just that Charles hadn’t been that happy about it. It wasn’t that Charles didn’t get along with George. Alex knew that. Whenever he was over at their place Charles talked with him like there was no problem. It was just that Charles didn’t want Alex to get hurt by hanging out with the taken guy he had a crush on. He had told this to him many times, but Alex never answered anything or changed his way. 

He was doing fine with this whole crush thing, in his opinion. Or he  _ had  _ been doing fine. At the moment, while he was looking at Horsey sitting in George’s lap, purring at the other boy, he definitely wasn’t doing fine. 

“So does he always take this long to get ready?” George smiled at Alex softly, nodding towards Charles’ bedroom. Alex looked at George a bit confused. He had been fully focused on looking at Horsey snuggle against George. “Charles. Does he always take this long?”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah”, Alex nodded at George right away trying to act like everything was okay. Like the fact that his cat seemed to love George didn’t have any reaction to him. “Can’t believe Horsey loves you that much. He usually doesn’t let anyone but me or Charles to hold him.”

“Oh I guess we have a special bond then”, George smiled, looking at the cat. He scratched behind his ear, making the purring louder. He grinned at Alex, excited. “Wanna do shots again?” 

Alex nodded with a chuckle, grabbing the liquor bottle. He liked to take drinking calmly, mostly because when he drank he was around Charles who needed some babysitting. George on the other hand seemed to want to go all out tonight asking for more drinks. Maybe he would babysit two people today, he thought but was only smiling to the idea.

”Wha- You’re doing shots without me?!” Charles walked into the living room in an almost see-through shirt and tight black pants. George stared at Charles. ”Alexander, pour me some shots.”

”Not your servant”, Alex rolled his eyes, but nevertheless took a glass to pour a shot for Charles. George pushed his own glass into Alex’s hands for refill as well. ”So you ready? Can we finally get to the bar?” 

”Just a moment”, Charles grinned, downing the shot like it was no problem. ”Now we can go!”

The walk to the bar wasn’t that long. Alex had a feeling Charles wanted their apartment because it was a perfect short walking distance to the best clubs in the city. Alex didn’t complain about it right now, though. The autumn night was cold and he was happy there wasn’t a line to the club.

”Wai- Wait is that Pierre?” Charles stopped as soon as they got into the club. Alex looked at Charles confused, following his gaze to a close-by table. ”Oh my God, is him!”

”Wait, that’s Pierre?” Alex asked Charles, who nodded, staring at the table. It had been weeks since the first party and Charles and Pierre hooking up. Charles kept bringing him up again and again. "You have to go talk to him! This is a sign!"

"I… Okay, yeah", Charles took a step towards the table before quickly taking a step back to Alex and George. "Nope, no, too sober for this. To the bar, now!" 

Charles grabbed both Alex' and George's arms starting to pull them with him over to the bar. They ended up getting _ a lot _ of drinks. Way too many, if you asked Alex; he stopped much earlier than George and Charles did. After many drinks, Charles headed towards the dancefloor, where Pierre was now in some group. It didn't take long till George pulled Alex to the dancefloor as well. 

Alex didn't think he was much of a dancer but it didn't matter when he was shouting songs and dancing with George. George was clearly drunk now, while Alex was just tipsy but that didn't matter either. Nothing mattered. They just focused on dancing together through the music, feeling free of everything. 

The dancing got a bit touchier than it probably should have, but Alex didn’t care. Charles seemed busy with Pierre anyway, so he wasn’t there to stop them. Alex just let George wrap his arms around him, pulling him close. Alex leaned against him just smiling at George. He wasn’t exactly sure what happened next other than George’s lips were against his. 

Alex returned the kiss, opening his mouth for a deeper kiss. He moved his hand to George’s face, pulling him closer while George squeezed his waist a little. The kiss was nothing like his kisses with Charles had been. This felt like a real kiss filled with emotions. When George pulled away, Alex only wanted to pull him back, but when he saw the look on the other boy’s face, he knew there wouldn’t be another kiss. 

“Fuck fuck fuck”, George was mumbling to himself dropping his arms and taking a step back. Alex felt his heart sink as he swallowed hard. “What the fuck did I just do? Fuck.”

Alex looked at George touch his own lips softly while just staring forward, clearly spiralling. Alex felt the good buzz fade away slowly and he too started to realise what happened. George had kissed him. George, who was taken, had kissed him. George, who had Lando, had just kissed him. And most importantly: George clearly really regretted it. 

“George, it’s okay, it’s fine”, Alex told him, grabbing his hand and pulling away from the dancefloor to the side. His brain pushed every emotion away and just tried to get out of the situation somehow. “George nothing happened. We can pretend it didn’t happen.”

George was just staring at Alex, eyes glistering with tears. Alex bit his lower lip, fighting any emotion from coming up. Stay strong now, Alex told himself. 

“Look, I’ll go get Charles and…”, Alex started, but he stopped half. There was no way George would be able to find his way back to his home safely. On top of that, maybe seeing Lando right away wasn’t the best idea. “I go get Charles and we go back to our place and you sleep on the sofa okay? Is that okay George?”

George kept staring at Alex before nodding slowly. Alex nodded back at him before quickly starting to walk around the club to find Charles. He couldn’t fight his tears anymore, just letting a few drop down his cheeks as he looked around. He finally found Charles in one booth sitting in Pierre’s lap kissing him. Alex looked around lost, not really wanting to mess with his best friend’s night but he couldn’t be with George alone. He couldn’t do this alone. 

“Alex wha-”, Charles pulled away from Pierre with an annoyed look on his face when Alex pulled him away and called his name. The annoyed look changed to a worried one when he saw Alex’s face. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I… George kissed me”, Alex managed to get out looking at his roommate with pleading eyes. Charles got off Pierre’s lap right away, the other boy long-forgotten now as he pulled Alex to a hug. “He is… He is too drunk to go to his place… Please come with us to our apartment. Please, Charles.”

“Of course!” Charles told Alex, hugging him tightly, placing a small kiss to his hair. “Let’s go right now, okay? Where is he?” 

Charles let go of Alex quickly, changing a few words in French with Pierre. He held Alex’s hand tightly and Alex couldn’t help but felt guilty. He was taking his best friend away from his crush. He was fucking up his night for him. Alex gazed at Pierre and the boy just gave him a warm smile back. It made him feel a bit better. 

The walk to the apartment was quiet. Charles walked between George and Alex holding both of their hands. As a comfort for Alex. As physical support for George that he would be able to walk. Alex had been able to wipe the tears away and stop new ones from coming while George was just silently sobbing. 

As soon as they were in the apartment, Alex hurried to his bedroom to be alone with Horsey. Charles could deal with crying George. He couldn’t. He knew he would just end up comforting George and telling him it was all okay and ignore all of his own pain. Instead, he sat on his bed hugging Horsey close to his chest. 

“Sorry I ruined your night”, Alex said when the door opened and closed to the bedroom. Charles sat next to him on the bed with a sigh. He wrapped his arms around Alex’s shoulder. “And thank you for helping with George. He needed the help.”

“Yeah, I’m not here to help that cheater asshole”, Charles huffed a little while pulling Alex closer. “I’m here because my best friend needs me. Nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”

Alex couldn’t hold his tears back anymore, breaking down fully in Charles’ arms. It would be a long night ahead. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Comments and kudos are very much appreciated! I will post the second part of this on Sunday! 
> 
> Moodboard I made for this fic on my tumblr [here](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/post/645386994786189312/fic-moodboard-life-was-a-willow-or-the-one-where)
> 
> Also yes I plan to make Charles/Pierre story to this universe because they are too fun to write. Also Max makes an appearance in the next chapter


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy!

Alex woke up the next morning with Charles pressed against his back and Horsey sleeping against his stomach. It took him a moment to go through everything that had happened the night before. 

They had been in the club. George had kissed him. George had freaked out because of it. They had got back to the apartment where Charles helped George to sleep on the sofa. Then he had come over to him where Alex had just fully broken down to sobs. Charles ended up just holding him close and at some point they had apparently fallen asleep. What a night. 

So that meant George was still sleeping on the sofa. George who had just kissed him. George who had basically cheated on his boyfriend with him. George who he really just wanted to kiss again. 

Alex didn't know what to think about all of it. He had wanted to kiss George for such a long time already, but he hadn't had any actual plans to do it. Not when George was taken. But that clearly hadn't stopped George from kissing him. And that surely meant that George had feelings for him. He felt slightly dizzy.

Alex sat up carefully with Horsey in his arms. Charles rolled to the other side, still sleeping. Alex wanted Charles to keep on sleeping, so he quietly slipped out of the room. It was the least he could do after all the helping Charles had done for him. He stopped when he saw George laying on the sofa, eyes open, staring to the ceiling.

He hadn’t thought this far. He hadn’t actually thought about what to say to George. Were they supposed to pretend like nothing happened in the club? Was he supposed to ignore that it had been George that made the move? Was he supposed to ignore all of his own feelings?

Alex didn’t have an answer to any of that. But maybe George did.

”Morning”, Alex said carefully, his voice hoarse. George turned his head towards him. He looked like he had barely slept. There were dried-up tear tracks on his cheeks. But then again, Alex was sure he didn’t look much better himself. ”Want breakfast?”

Alex started to move towards the kitchen as George’s gaze just followed him. He placed Horsey on the counter, grabbing food for him. The cat started purring happily and Alex smiled. Horsey would always support him, he thought as he poured the food into the cat’s bowl. When he lifted his gaze, George was leaning against the doorframe, looking at him. 

"I'm so sorry Alex", George said. Alex dropped his gaze back to Horsey. "I shouldn't have kissed you. That was over the line. I don't want to lose you because of this stupid mistake."

"It's fine", Alex said ,because what else could he really say? He couldn't lose George, no matter how much this situation pained him. "You were really drunk and it didn't mean anything. I mean, you love Lando. It’s fine. We pretend nothing happened."

There was a moment of silence in the kitchen. Alex petted Horsey, refusing to look at George. He knew he would end up crying if he did. 

"Right", George said after a moment, pushing himself off the doorframe. "I… I should head home… Thanks for being so cool about this."

"No problem", Alex hummed and quickly lifted his gaze to meet George's. George was looking straight at him with a look that Alex couldn't read. "I’ll see you on Monday. Coffee will be my treat." 

Alex forced a smile. George returned it with a tenser smile and a nod before walking out. Alex stayed still till he heard the door close. He took a deep breath before walking back to his bed. He slipped under the blanket, wanting to sleep the day away.

"Alex?" Charles mumbled from beside him. He moved closer to him so they would both fit under the blanket. ”What time is it?”

”It’s still early, just keep sleeping”, Alex told him quietly. Charles made a little huff sound turning to look at him. ”Sorry for waking you.”

”It’s fine”, Charles said, closing his eyes again, but he slung his arm over Alex. Alex smiled faintly, pressing his head against his friend’s, finding his touch comforting. ”Are you okay? Were you out of the room?”

”I’m okay… I went to feed Horsey… And talked with George. He left.”

”What did you two talk about?”

”We pretend nothing happened. There was no kiss between us. He will go home and be happy with Lando. We keep being friends. That’s it.”

”Alex that sounds awf-”

”Charles, I can’t talk about this. Not now. Okay?”

Alex was biting his lower lip, fighting the tears that started to form in his eyes. Of course the plan sounded awful, and it was tearing his heart apart. But this was the only option he had. He had to keep George’s life normal. Desperately. And George was fine with the plan, so this was what they would continue with.

”Okay”, Charles whispered to him. Alex felt Charles press a soft kiss to his hair, squeezing him softly. ”Wanna continue sleeping?”

Alex simply nodded to that, taking a shaky breath. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Charles snuggled against him and the only thing he was able to think about was how lucky he was to have Charles as his best friend. Best friend who had dropped everything to help him.

”Sorry I fucked up your night with Pierre”, Alex whispered, keeping his eyes closed. ”Did he remember you? You got his number?”

”You didn’t fuck up anything Alex”, Charles murmured quietly. He pressed his face to Alex’s hair. ”And yeah he remembered me. Turns out he is the same age as us and works as an au pair. I got his instagram so we can chat. Now sleep!”

Alex hummed a little. He felt a small smile come to his face when he heard Horsey’s meows coming closer. The cat jumped on the bed and wiggled his way between Charles and Alex. 

He’ll be okay with this support.

#

Neither of them talked about the plan later. Alex refused to discuss it because there simply wasn’t anything else they could do. Yeah, the plan was painful, but it would surely get less painful as time would pass. They would simply keep on forgetting about the whole kiss. Alex wanted to do that. 

It was just that George apparently had different plans. 

“You told Lando?” Alex stared at George, mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. They were sitting in a cafe after lectures on Monday. The whole day had been awkward, as if George had wanted to tell him something. Well, this was it then. “Wasn’t the plan to pretend nothing happened?”

“Yeah, between us”, George told Alex, staring at his book as he avoided Alex’s gaze. “But I couldn’t hide it from Lando. That would have made everything so much worse and possibly break us up… So yeah, I told him.”

Alex understood that. Of course he did. Obviously George did the right thing by telling Lando. Wasn’t relationships supposed to be all about honesty anyway? And looked like it hadn’t gone that bad if George was here sitting opposite of him. 

“So… How did you tell him to go?” Alex asked carefully. This time he lowered his gaze, not wanting to look at George. “Does he know you’re here with me right now?”

“It was a lot of shouting and crying”, George sighed, taking a sip from his coffee. Alex noticed how tired George’s voice sounded like. “But then we talked yesterday about it all and we’re okay. And yes, he knows we are studying together and he’s fine with it. He knows how important you are to me as a friend and he trusts me. So it's good.”

As a friend. Well, that felt like a stab in his back, but Alex only nodded. All of it just felt like stabs around his body really. Lando forgave George like that. George wanted to be honest and still be with him. They really were perfect for each other. 

“Well that’s good”, Alex forced a smile. George was looking at him with a tiny smile as well. “Now, can we get back to the essay?”

At least Alex had been right about something: the pain got less as the days passed. They were able to get their studying back on track like nothing had happened. The only thing was that now they stuck to either cafes or libraries. Alex wasn’t that keen on seeing Lando, so they stayed away from George’s place. At the same time he didn’t trust Charles not to start going off at George if he brought him to his place. At least this part of their friendship worked. 

The actual talking freely and having fun part didn’t really work that well, though. There were moments when it was like nothing weighed them down, but then there were moments when you could cut the tension with a knife. George didn’t talk about anything related to Lando anymore. Alex didn’t tell stories about Charles’ partying because he knew that would only cause them to think about the party night and the kiss. 

The crack in their friendship became really clear when there was a message waiting for Alex one morning in his phone. 

George R  
  
  
I won’t come to school for a few days. Everything is okay. I just thought I would let you know. Don’t worry about me.  


Alex read the message again and again. How is he not supposed to worry about George? If it had been the time before their kiss, he would have got his jacket and shoes and gone right over to George’s place to check up on him. But this time Alex just sent him a message back telling him okay and he wishes he will be back soon. No question about what had happened. No I'll miss you. Just that he had read the message. And it hurt him to write that. 

He spent the days on campus feeling lost without George. He ate with the group they always ate with, which was nice, and sat close to them during lectures, but it wasn’t the same. No one could replace George. 

Once again Alex was thankful that he had Charles in his life. He could trust that his best friend would keep him entertained and try to distract him. Sure not all of his ways to do that were that great. 

“I really don’t need a tinder, Charles”, Alex complained to his roommate, who was fully focused on swiping right on guys on Alex’s phone. “Play with your own tinder and let me delete mine please. I don’t want to date anyone.”

“Yes you do. You want to date George”, Charles noted, not even lifting his gaze up from the phone. 

Well, he’s not wrong.

“But not for long”, Charles said. “We’ll find someone ten times hotter than George on here.”

“Charleees”, Alex whined. He turned to look at Horsey, who was lying on the sofa next to Charles. “Defende me Horsey! Bite Charles!”

Horsey let out a soft meow, but only stretched himself to a better position. Alex shook his head. Not much support then. He made one last attempt to grab his phone back and somehow managed to twist it out of Charles’ hands. There was a conversation open with some guy. 

“Charles what the hell! This guy’s ugly”, Alex frowned, quickly deleting the match before closing his phone. Charles pouted a little at Alex. “If you are  that  desperate to talk to a guy, just text Pierre!”

“I can’t”, Charles pouted even more now, slumping on the couch. “He’s out of the country with the family he is au pair for and apparently he doesn’t have a good internet and ugh! I mean he did manage to send me a cute pic with him and the kids in Disney World.” 

“Remember when there was time when seeing a kid made you gag?” Alex teased Charles a little. He was more than happy to change the conversation from his non-exciting love life to Charles’... well, it wasn’t a very active love life either, but it was something. “And remember when you were supposed to find sugar daddy? How much money do au pairs make?”

“First of all, I didn’t say the kids were cute. I said that it was a cute picture and what made that picture cute was Pierre. And second of all… Shut up!” 

“Hmm… I think you two would make a cute pair. If only you’d finally find time to actually meet and hang out. He’s exactly the opposite of what you wanted, but exactly what you need.”

“Shut up! And when he gets back here I’m gonna invite him over for a date so you gotta get out of here for that.”

“Oh, I’m more than happy to leave, trust me. I’ll just go over to Geor- Oh.”

Alex’s smile dropped when he realised what he was about to say. Nope. He wasn’t going over to George. That really wasn’t an option. Alex sighed deeply, rubbing his face a little. Soon he felt Charles’ arms wrap around him tightly, pulling him to a hug. He smiled faintly, snuggling to his friend. 

“Wanna watch a movie?” Charles offered carefully, to which Alex nodded. 

They spent the rest of the day watching old Disney movies on the sofa. 

#

Five days. 

The radio silence from George lasted five days. 

Five long, painful days. 

Alex was sitting on his bed, reading through his notes from lectures when his phone started ringing. He had to stop and stare at the phone when he saw an incoming facetime call from George. There was no question of whether to answer or not as he picked up the phone. 

“Hi!” George’s voice sounded happy and he had a big smile on his face. Alex immediately found himself smiling too. He had really missed that smile. Most importantly, he had missed carefree and happy George. “Thanks for picking up. I was scared you wouldn’t… I’ve missed you.”

“I… Me too”, Alex managed to say, but while being relieved that George looked so happy, he felt very confused. “But… You gotta explain to me where you’ve been. Everyone has been asking over at school where you were and… What happened?”

“I’m sorry I disappeared”, the smile fell off George's face as he sighed. “It wasn’t really fair but… Lando and I broke up and I needed some time to just be with myself and clear my head a bit. I wasn’t ready to talk about it either, so I stayed away.”

Alex felt his mouth actually drop a little when he heard George’s words. He and Lando had broken up? Okay, it clearly hadn’t been going that well for them or George would have never kissed him, but the idea of them breaking up felt odd. Even if in Alex’s low moments he had kind of hoped for that. 

“You two broke up?” Alex asked carefully and George nodded to that. He tried to find a good way to put his words, but it felt like an impossible task. “How? Why? What?”

“Okay let’s… Let’s just go through it all”, George sighed a little but kept a small smile on his face. That was comforting at least, Alex thought. “After moving here together, things just kinda… Everything started to fall apart and there started to be distance between us and, well, I met you and started kinda crushing, and honestly Lando seemed to start crushing on Max. But neither of us were brave enough to actually break up, I guess.”

George shrugged a little as he continued. “I mean, two years is a long time to be together, but it just wasn’t working anymore and Lando came back home from seeing Max one day and I had just been watching this Netflix comedy thing where there was talk about relationships and I guess we both kind of realised that this really wasn’t working anymore. So… We broke up. We will stay as friends though, but Lando is at his parents’ place at the moment.”

Alex couldn’t understand how George was able to say everything so calmly. The look on his face didn’t even change while telling everything. Alex meanwhile felt like a mess. But there was one part that really stuck to him. 

“You started crushing on me?” Alex asked, his cheeks heating up a bit. He felt like a teenager, but it had felt really good to hear George say that outloud. 

“Badly crushing on you, Alex”, George told him with a small chuckle. Alex bit his lip not to smile too wide. George was smiling now brightly too. “I couldn’t really ignore those feelings after kissing you and… Yeah, I have a big crush on you… I mean, it’s okay if you don’t have any feelings for me, we c-”

“No, I do have feelings for you!” Alex interrupted George, quickly smiling wider than he had ever before. They just looked at each other for a moment, both smiling at their phone screens like idiots. “So… What do we do now?”

“Would you like to come over tomorrow? I thought I could, like, cook us dinner and we could have a nice evening together.”

“That sounds… kinda like a date.”

“Only if you want it to be a date. I get that if you do-”

“No, I want it to be a date!” 

“Then a date it is.”

#

“It’s nice to see you clean for once”, Alex was smirking at Charles as he watched his roommate run around the living room. “Pierre is a lucky guy. You put so much effort into your date with him.”

“Oh fuck off”, Charles flipped Alex off but only continued with swiping the dust off everything. “Don’t you have your own date to go to? Leave!”

It was a big day for both of them. They had a first date: Alex going over to George’s while Pierre came over to their place. Charles seemed to be a nervous wreck, while Alex was just buzzed and happy. For once it was this way around. Alex would finally get to spend time with George. Not even his friend George. But his crush George. He was just excited. 

“I’m having fun watching you”, Alex smirked at Charles, then he checked the time on his phone. He’d rather be early than late. “Okay, I should probably leave now.”

Alex leaned in to give Horsey a kiss, saying goodbye to the cat before walking over to the door. He checked himself in the mirror quickly before putting his jacket and shoes on. He was wearing new dark jeans and a nice black sweater on. It wasn’t too fancy, but it was definitely a nice outfit and something Charles had approved. Speaking of Charles, he had stopped cleaning for at least a moment and was now looking at Alex.

“What?” Alex asked, gazing up to Charles while he tied up his shoelaces. “You look like you want to say something.”

“I really don’t want to ruin your mood or date but”, Charles took a deep breath. Alex tensed a little as he looked at his friend confused. “I know you are very excited for this date, but I just want you to be careful, okay? Yes, George is a good guy and all, but he literally  just  broke up with his boyfriend of two years. Boyfriend who he cheated on… With you.”

“It was only one kiss”, Alex defended George. He got up from the floor, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He had been so hyped. He didn’t understand why Charles had now decided to talk about all of this. “And I really like him, Charles.”

“I know you do, and it’s  good  that you do”, Charles said quickly. He sighed a little. “But just… He just broke up, Alex. I don’t want you to get hurt or be a band-aid for him. That’s all.”

Alex frowned. He definitely didn’t want to be a band-aid either, but that’s not what was happening. George had real feelings for him. He hadn’t kissed him if he didn’t. George wasn’t a person who would go around kissing people… Right?

“I didn’t mean to freak you out”, Charles’ voice got Alex out of his thoughts. “But I care about you so much… Have a good date though. I want you to enjoy it.”

“Thanks”, Alex smiled at Charles. He took a deep breath, checking himself in the mirror one last time. He had an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. “Have a good date too!”

Alex tried to shake Charles' words off him as he walked down the street. He wasn’t a band-aid to George. George actually liked him. Sure, he had just broken up, but George was literally the sweetest person alive. He would never hurt him…. Though he had hurt Lando with the kiss… And Alex too. Fuck. 

One bus ride later, Alex was standing in front of George’s building. He had got some of his hype back and he just tried to focus on the fact that he would finally see George again. And that they could finally be friends again. 

He checked his watch, thinking it was way too early to go to the apartment. He looked around noticing a flower shop on the next door building. Why not, he thought. 

The shop was very cute from the inside and Alex just stopped to look around for a moment. Getting flowers on a first date was maybe a bit girly, but he just wanted to do something special. He noticed a boy that looked about the same age as him, behind the counter. He smiled brightly at him as Alex walked closer. 

“Hey, I need like a bouquet or something”, Alex smiled at the boy who now stood up better. “Is kinda like a first date thing so nothing too fancy.”

“What’s his favorite colour?” the boy asked. To be honest the boy didn’t seem that good with customers but it couldn’t bring Alex’s mood down now. 

“Light blue and red”, Alex answered smiling, thinking of George’s phone case with those colours and the curtains in his apartment. 

The boy stopped fully just staring at Alex. Alex felt his smile fall a bit confused. Were those weird colours? Or did he know the guy? Maybe there was something familiar in him but… Clearly he was familiar to the guy when he continued. 

“You’re Alex”, the boy blurted out, still just staring at him. Alex swallowed slowly. “Are you getting these flowers for George?”

“Uh, yeah”, Alex said confused just looking at the boy. The boy knew him? The boy knew George? How the hell? “How do you know my na- You’re Max!”

It finally clicked in Alex’s head as he stared at the boy. Lando had a new friend named Max. Max who did flowers. Max whose instagram he had stalked enough many times. Max who apparently also knew about him. 

“Yeah, but”, this time it was Max’s turn to be confused. He stared at Alex looking him up and down. “How the fuck do you know my name?” 

“I asked that question first!” Alex said quickly. Of course George would tell him about Max and Lando had probably told about the kiss to Max but it felt just bizarre. “You answer it first!”

“Well Lando talked about you so I… I stalked your Instagram and… Those are George’s favorite colours. Now you!” 

“George told me Lando has a new best friend named Max and that you do flowers but I didn’t know that here… I too stalked your Instagram.” 

They two boys just stared at each other for a moment before Max broke to a little smile. That softened Alex and he let out a chuckle. This was absolutely ridiculous, Alex thought. Like a scene from a rom-com or romance movie. Here they were staring at each other. Alex had feelings for George. Max probably had feelings for Lando. This was insane. 

“Why are you going on a date with George?” Max broke the silence, his smile dropping away. “That means George is cheating.”

“No he is- Wait you don’t know?” Alex’s eyes widened in the middle of the sentence when he realised. “George and Lando broke up a week ago.”

The look on Max’s face was heartbreaking. Max clearly had no idea about it. Sure George had hidden it from him for a moment but Lando still hadn’t told him anything clearly. He looked so lost Alex couldn’t help but take a step closer to the other boy. 

“Max sorry I didn’t know that you didn’t know this”, Alex said with a comforting smile. “They had a talk about their feelings and ended up deciding that they weren’t working anymore. George told me a few days ago… Lando hasn’t said anything?”

“We are not speaking at the moment”, Max admitted, just lowering his gaze. Alex felt pain just looking at the other boy’s reactions. “He just… He just told me he is going home for a moment.”

Alex didn’t know what to say. He just looked at Max. His own date started feeling like a worse idea again. Here he was going on a date with George while Lando hadn’t even been ready to tell Max about the break up. It all started to feel rushed. 

“Let me do the flowers for you”, Max forced a smile to Alex and started to get flowers for the bouquet. Alex looked at Max make a simple bouquet with the perfect colours and flowers. Max sighed before handing it to him. “There you go.”

“Thanks”, Alex smiled softly. The bouquet was absolutely beautiful. Max nodded to him a little. “This is so beautiful.”

It seemed like Max wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore so Alex paid the flowers in silence. He wasn’t sure what to feel anymore. He stopped by the door turning to look at the other boy. Max looked absolutely devastated. 

“Max”, Alex gave him a soft smile. “From listening to George talk about Lando and you… I’m pretty sure Lando likes you and you will get your first date too.”

Max gave him a quick nod before Alex slipped out of the shop. Alex looked at the flowers for a moment before taking a deep breath and walking to George’s building. First Charles warning him and then miserable looking Max made him unsure about the whole date idea, but at the same time he hadn’t seen George for almost a week. And he trusted George. 

“Hi!” George opened the door to Alex, smiling brightly, looking better than ever. Alex was left speechless while George just kept smiling. Yes, this date was a good idea. “Come in!”

“I… Hi!” Alex managed to finally get out. He remembered the flowers suddenly and offered them to George with a shy smile. “I got you flowers… I don’t know maybe it was stupid ide-”

“I love them, thank you”, George smiled softly as he took the flowers, taking a step back to let Alex slip to the apartment. Alex took his jacket and shoes off but before he got more into the apartment George continued. “Can I hug you?”

Instead of answering, Alex wrapped his arms tightly around George. George let out a little chuckle, wrapping his arms around Alex. Alex pressed his face against the other’s boy’s neck just happy this was finally happening again. They stand in the hallway just holding each other for a moment. This was where he belonged, Alex thought to himself sighing happily. 

They only broke the hug when they heard an alarm go off in the kitchen.

“Shit, our food will burn soon”, George chuckled a little, slowly letting go of Alex. He let his fingers linger on his arm before pulling away fully. “I made homemade pizza. It better cool down a bit though, so you can go to the living room.”

“Ooh awesome”, Alex smiled softly at George. “You’re really spoiling me.”

He looked at George walk to the kitchen with a smile before he walked to the living room. He looked around the place, feeling the smile slip off his face slowly. He had been in the room so many times before, but now it was so obviously different while being also too much the same. 

Where used to be pictures of George and Lando and their friend group from high school, was now empty space. Meanwhile Lando’s computer table and all games were still at the same spot as before. It all felt off balance like Lando was still there but also wasn’t. 

Alex knew that George and Lando had only just broken up, which of course meant that Lando officially still lived in the place. After all, George had said they would be friends and Lando was just visiting his parents now. And Alex was fine with that, of course, but it only made his feelings more of a mess, the uncertainty of everything creeping up on him. 

It was a week since George and Lando had broken up. Charles was right to have his doubts. Lando hadn’t even been ready to tell Max what had happened. George was still living with Lando. It was all too much. 

“I’ve missed you so much”, Alex tensed when George’s arms wrapped around him from the behind. George seemed to notice and pulled his arms away slowly. “What is it?”

“I don’t think I can do this”, Alex said, looking down to the floor. He quickly turned around heading towards the door. “Not now. Sorry.”

“What are you talking about?” George managed to grab Alex’s hand before he got to his clothes. George looked genuinely confused by everything. “What can’t you do? I thought you liked me and wanted a date with me? I would never force you to do anything you’re not comfortable with…”

“Well, then I’m not comfortable with this”, Alex ripped his arm out of George’s grip, starting to get his shoes back on quickly. “It’s far too soon. You should have never invited me on a date. You literally broke up a week ago.”

“Yeah I just broke, but I’ve been having feelings for you since the first day of school. And Lando’s and my relationship… didn’t even seem like a relationship anymore. So what’s wrong?”

“Maybe it didn’t seem like a relationship to you… I mean, clearly it didn’t because you fucking kissed me while being with Lando. And now you invite me on a date right away while it  clearly  meant a lot more to Lando because hasn’t even been able to tell Max that you two have broken up.”

“Well… That’s Lando, he is far more emotional and how do you even know that? And it was a one kiss. It was a mistake, but it’s not chea-”

“Having feelings for someone while being in a relationship is cheating, George. And if you don’t understand that, then I don’t ever want to see you. I won’t be your fucking band-aid.”

“Alex the hell-”

Alex slammed the door shut behind him and started running away. This date idea was the stupidest thing he had ever done. Charles was right about George after all. Alex felt tears come to his eyes as he ran but didn’t bother to stop or wipe them away. He only stopped running when he was inside and the door to his apartment closed behind him. 

“Alex?” he heard Charles’ confused voice coming from the living room. “Is that you?”

“Yeah the da-”, Alex walked to the living room but stopped when he saw Pierre and Charles sitting on a sofa cuddled against each other. 

Right, their first date. A wave of guilt washed over him and he just started crying harder as he quickly rushed to his own room. First he fucked everything up with George and now he once again fucked things up for Pierre and Charles. He felt like the worst person in the whole world as he sobbed against his hands on the bed. 

“Alex?” Charles’ soft voice came beside him and he felt his arms wrap around him. Alex pushed them away. “What the hell happened? Do I have to kill George?”

“No, please”, Alex whined, refusing to look at Charles. He would  not  ruin his friend’s date that he had looked forward to for so long. “Please... I don’t want to ruin your date. Go back to him. Please Charles.”

“I can’t go back to him while you’re sobbing here”, Charles told him firmly wrapping his arms around Alex again. This time Alex didn’t fight him. “You’re more important to me than my date. Even if it’s gorgeous Pierre. But bros before hoes and all that, you know.”

Alex laughed a little before just pressing himself against Charles’ chest. He couldn’t speak anymore, he just let all his feelings take over him as he sobbed against Charles. Horsey wiggled to sit on Alex’s lap, meowing at him, but even that didn’t help.

At some point he felt Pierre sit on the other side of him, carefully running his hand over his back to calm him. Alex was able to hear him and Charles whispering to each other, but he didn’t catch any actual words. He didn’t even try to. He just focused on the love he got from everyone trying to calm him down. 

#

Alex spent the following week on the sofa watching tv, mind numb. Charles stayed by his side most of the time, not even saying anything. He simply let Alex know that he was there for him. He had taken Alex’s phone at some point and blocked George. Alex wished he could also block George from his brain. 

He wasn’t even angry at George anymore. He was just angry at himself. Why did he have to go off at George like that? He had finally had a chance to get George back into his life and then he had ruined it again. How could George ever want to be around him after that? 

Because the thing was, Alex definitely wanted to still have George around. When he had come down from his overwhelming feelings, he knew he had just lashed out because it felt too soon and he was scared of getting hurt. Of course he stood by some of the things he had told George, but surely there had been a better way to talk through these things. Not just shout at each other and run away. 

Everything felt like it was so far from ever being right again. Alex shut himself down fully. On top of that, Charles even seemed a bit happy about this all. 

“When you feel good again, we're gonna go shopping together”, Charles told Alex on Sunday as Alex was laying on Charles’ bed. He had been listening to his roommate play piano while playing with Horsey’s paws. The cat seemed to know he was hurting and stayed close to Alex the whole time. “We’ll get you new outfits and then get you dates and everything.”

Alex knew that Charles only meant the best with his words; he didn’t want Alex to get hurt and he saw George as the devil. Even when he had tried to explain to him that the ruined date  really  hadn’t been George’s fault, his roommate refused to listen. So Alex stayed quiet and changed the subject. 

“Are you and Pierre seeing each other again soon?” Alex asked softly. He turned his head to look at Charles trying to give him a smile. “He was kind to help me.”

“Well, he  is possibly the kindest person alive”, Charles smiled softly. It felt good to see his friend so smitten. “And hopefully. But now he’s just busy with work.”

There was a bit of uncertainty in Charles’ voice in the last part. Alex reached his hand towards his friend and soon Charles was laying on the bed next to him, Horsey enjoying petting from both of them. 

“Everything’s going to be alright”, Charles told Alex softly. 

And Alex really hoped so. 

#

Alex slowly got out of the bed during the next few days, but he still skipped both Monday and Tuesday. He knew this would end up just hurting him in the long run, but he just hadn’t been ready to face George yet. He didn’t know what to say to him. Actually, he was pretty sure George didn’t even want to talk to him. 

Oh was he wrong. 

When Alex finally went back to school on Wednesday, he found George sitting on the usual bench where they always met before classes. George had two coffee cups standing next to him and Alex wondered if he had had them on the earlier days too. George was looking at people walking into the yard with a sad look on his face. The look changed fully when he saw Alex. 

“Alex”, George grabbed the coffee cups, hurrying over to Alex. He stopped abruptly, leaving some space between them before carefully offering a cup. “I got you coffee… Even if you don’t want to talk to me.”

“Thanks”, Alex felt himself blush and he couldn’t help a smile from coming to his face. George relaxed a bit. “I… I thought you wouldn’t want to talk to me, actually.”

“What? Why wouldn’t I want to talk to you? It’s me who was an idiot and messed up when I asked you out on a date and didn’t think about it at all… And you blocked me on everything, and honestly I understand why you did it.”

“Pretty sure I messed up our date by making a scene and shouting at you… And I didn’t block you, Charles did.”

Both Alex and George stared at each other for a moment before George broke a smile. That made Alex smile too. Maybe everything still could be fixed. At least George wanted to talk to him. It was already going better than he had thought. 

“I think we have a lot of stuff to talk through”, Alex told George softly. George nodded at that. “After lessons? I have missed too much of school… and so have you.”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan”, George smiled at Alex before heading towards the school building. “Let’s go?” 

Alex nodded. They walked side by side as Alex sipped on his coffee. He caught George’s gaze and he felt his cheeks heat up a bit. He couldn’t believe George had been waiting for him. Even after two days, he was waiting for him. Maybe he really wouldn’t be a band-aid. 

The school day went by fast. There was so much stuff to catch up on. Working together flowed between the two boys like it always had been but maybe there were few more gazes at each other. They ate together with the group and when a few people questioned their disappearances George was quick to change the subject and save them. 

“So… Will Charles kill me?” George asked as they reached Alex’s building. Public space for their talk didn’t seem like a good idea. Neither did George’s place. To be honest also the current plan didn’t seem that great. 

“Hmm… He might try”, Alex said. George seemed a bit nervous. “But it’ll be okay… I think.”

Alex opened the door to the apartment carefully, telling George to stay quiet as they walked in. Maybe if they were quiet enough they could somehow get to his bedroom without Charles noticing. Of course that plan didn’t work since Charles was sitting on the livingroom floor with fabrics all around him. 

“Hey Al- The fuck!” There was fire in Charles’ eyes as soon as he saw George walk in. Both of the boys froze. “Nope. No. No! George fuck off! Alex why did you bring him here?”

“We… We are going to talk things through”, Alex tried defending them as Charles shot daggers in George’s direction. “Please stop that, Charles. We… We’re gonna work everything out.”

“Hmm”, Charles stared at George before sighing. “Fine… But the bedroom door stays fucking open the whole time you two talk. And George, you’re on thin fucking ice!”

George quickly nodded. Alex grabbed his hand and started to pull him along to his bedroom. He felt Charles’ glare at them as they walked to the room. Alex didn’t even bother to try and close the door, just leaving it open. He found Horsey lying on the bed, asleep, and he cradled him into his, gathering him like a baby to his chest. He would need the comfort for this talk. George sat on the bed as well but left some space between them. They both looked at each other for a moment before opening their mouths the exact same time. 

“I’m so sorry Alex.”

“I’m so sorry George.”

They both stared at each other for a moment before laughing a bit. They were both messes now. 

“No, Alex, please, can I go first?” George was quicker to respond and Alex couldn’t do anything else but nod. He held Horsey a bit closer to his chest. “I’m honestly so sorry. I wasn’t thinking when I invited you for the date. I was just blinded by the fact we could fix things between us and… And maybe be something more because I really like you and I still really like you.

“But I understand now…. It was too fast. And I understand why it hurt you and honestly I don’t want you to be a band-aid and I definitely gotta clear a few things in my head now after the break up but… I still really like you Alex, and I think we could be really good for each other… At some point when we are  both  ready for it…. And I just want to say I’m sorry again.”

“So… what made you think all that?” Alex asked carefully. Maybe he should have started his own apology. “What changed your mind?”

“I mean, you storming out definitely started the thought process”, George tried joking, but when Alex’s only reaction was to hide his face in Horsey’s fur, he blushed. “Sorry that was a bad joke… No, I…. Okay, after you left, I was confused and all and I tried to think of it all and… Lando came back to the city on Friday and fixed everything with Max and I… He kinda shouted at me for being so stupid towards you and it all just clicked in my brain, you know? I tried calling you, but you’d blocked me and… I was scared I lost you fully. Even as a friend.”

Alex hummed a little and thought about it all. So Lando and Max were okay now. And there was a possibility of him and George being okay too. That felt really good. 

“I… My reaction during the date was over the top”, Alex told George quietly. He focused on playing with Horsey’s paws, not daring to look at George. George tried to say something but Alex cut him off. “No, don't say anything. It was dramatic, but I think I just got really overwhelmed by everything and I got scared of getting hurt. And scared of everything getting fucked and then I wouldn’t have you even as a friend left… And I still like you too.”

The last sentence felt good to say and he gazed at George quickly. There was a small smile on the other boy’s face. Alex smiled too, finally letting go off Horsey a bit who curled to a ball on his lap but was stretching over to George trying to get his attention too. 

“But… Yeah, I think you have things to work on”, Alex continued carefully. George’s smile fell a bit but he nodded. “And… I might have a few things to work on too, but like after that… I do really,  really  like you.”

“So, how about we take things slow?” George offered. “Figure our stuff out and we see how everything goes. No pressure. Just us two.”

“Yeah, I like that plan”, Alex smiled, nodding. He looked at the distance between him and George. “Do you reckon a hug would be over the line?”

George didn’t even answer that but instead moved to sit right next to Alex, wrapping his arms around him carefully, not to squeeze Horsey. Alex smiled and pressed his face to George’s neck, taking a deep breath. He felt George relax too and it really felt like everything was going to be okay between them. The hug only ended when George yelped and pulled away. 

“Shit Horsey!” George looked down to his hand where the cat hand scratched him. It only made Alex laugh a little. "You're lucky you're so cute Horsey. That hurt!

“I think that was his revenge for making me sad”, Alex chuckled a little, looking down at his cat. Horsey spread himself fully over at Alex’s lap meowing at George, probably trying to remind him Alex was his.

“Okay, I guess it was justified then”, George laughed too and looked at Horsey fondly. He looked at Alex for a moment before continuing. “So… Do you have notes from the days I missed school? I have notes for you from the days you missed.”

Alex nodded and they slipped back to their studying mood so effortlessly. Exactly like Alex had always wanted and dreamed. Everything really felt like it would get back. Maybe even more than just what they once were. 

When George left that evening, they spent a few minutes just hugging each other. This time Horsey didn’t break the hug, but Charles’ voice from the living room that did. 

“Why haven't I heard the door close yet?” Charles yelled, making George and Alex jump apart. “Goodbye George!”

“Yes, right, bye Charles”, George shouted towards the living room. He rolled his eyes, but was smiling at Alex. “Bye Alex. See you tomorrow.”

“Hmm, coffee is my treat”, Alex smiled. He gave George a little wave, watching him leave before walking to the living room, still smiling to himself. 

“Just so you know, I don’t like this”, Charles told Alex, fully focused on cutting fabric pieces for a new project. "But I'm going to try and be nice." 

And Alex was fine with that. 

He walked over to Charles sitting next to him on the floor to help him out. He was more than fine with his life now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :3 comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> Next story for this series will be Lando/George break up scene and them actually dealing with their emotions. Don't know when it will come but it will! After that Charles/Pierre for this! 
> 
> If you wanna come say hey my tumblr is [maxynorris](https://maxynorris.tumblr.com/)


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